The NanoGong voice recording/playback applet with integrated Moodle functionality is a very popular extension of Moodle 1, with many thousands of genuine downloads from our server to date. You may be interested to know that we have just released these packages for supporting NanoGong voice recording within Moodle 2:

NanoGong activity module

NanoGong plugin for the HTML editor (TinyMCE)

All information about NanoGong, including videos, demonstrations and downloads, is available at the NanoGong web site:

Any user can create NanoGong audio content in any part of Moodle 2 which uses the TinyMCE Editor. This can be 'mixed' with text and anything else you can create in the TinyMCE editor, if desired. This means that you can record voice messages in anything which uses the TinyMCE editor. Here is a video which briefly illustrates three examples of using NanoGong in the HTML editor. Three examples are shown: in an assignment, in the news forum, and in a label.

This is brilliant news! I was hoping someone would make this happen but I had no idea the original developers had been working on it. Thank you so much! This functionality really needs to be in Moodle core.

thanks for allowing me to try out NanoGong for Moodle 2 on your site. It is great to see it work just as in Moodle 1.9. I have requested the files, but the Gong site does not seem to be able to send email (I tried different addresses).

We were on the verge of adopting an alternative to NanoGong, but this is what we hoped for .

I guess the caption element was dropped since for a number of users it caused snags to occur in the process of saving the recording.

Thanks!!! This is definitely the best news since the release of Moodle 2.0. Can't hardly wait to tell my users, and as Frankie says, there is no doubt that they will be clapping their hands and jumping for joy. Thanks again for a great job.

I have tried to install the new version on my Moodle 2.2.1. Everything seems to be fine ... except that the applet itslef is nowhere to be found, neither in the "Activity" module, nor in the TinyMCE editor.

java.net.MalformedURLException: unknown protocol: notice at java.net.URL.<init>(URL.java:574) at java.net.URL.<init>(URL.java:464) at sun.plugin.util.GrayBoxPainter.setProgressFilter(GrayBoxPainter.java:218) at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager.setupGrayBoxPainter(Plugin2Manager.java:2290) at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager.access$700(Plugin2Manager.java:102) at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run(Plugin2Manager.java:1493) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)exception: name.java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: name at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.addJar(Applet2ClassLoader.java:522) at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2Manager.loadJarFiles(Applet2Manager.java:554) at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run(Plugin2Manager.java:1495) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)Exception: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: name

At the moment (May 2012) the block is only for Moodle 1.9, but it is nevertheless, a very useful diagnostic test that tells you, at a glance, what software is supported by your PC or computer.

From the green tick on the Java section, you should be able to check if Java is supported on your computer. Just my two cents to provide additional help where possible to pinpoint the source of your errors.

thanks for your response. I have tried Nanogong TinyMCE on your test website and it works fine on my computer so it's a server-side issue (or network configuration) but not client-side for sure.

What gets me really confused is that the Nanogong actvity works as expected, I can record just fine. It's just the TinyMCE plugin that I have a problem with. I have tried re-installing it a couple of times, same issue. I'm really starting to think that it's a network issue or some sort of security setting but I'll have to investigate further.

No problem, I'm always willing to help so that you have more 'free time' to create more posts on that outstanding Moodle blog of yours.

Hmm..strange that one component of Nanogong works on your site and the other doesn't work. You might want to double-check the installation process of Nanogong in the TinyMCE code - did you follow all the steps 100% right? I'm sure you did since it's actually quite simple.

Or maybe the TinyMCE code on your site is not the vanilla-stock-out-of-the-box code from the installed Moodle. Could be it's already had a hack in it? You know best.

I was having the same problem, but this fixed it. Saved me a lot of time working out what the problem was, so thanks! Just to be clear for anyone else using this, the line that needs to be modified is line 55 of /moodle/lib/editor/tinymce/tiny_mce/X.X.X.X/plugins/nanogong/nanogong.php

Not only does NanoGong for Moodle 2 (the tiny MCE editor plugin) not work with the Quiz essay question, It doesn't work with any of the other types of questions, either so far as I can tell.

It will let me create any type of question with audio in the question, answer, and feeback text areas. However, when you preview the question or take a test with audio in the questions, each Nanogong speaker icon when clicked will initially show the Nanogong player, then give an Error - Failed to establish connection to the server.

The one place it does work correctly is if you put a Nanogong audio into the test Overall feedback.

The new Moodle 2 Nanogong filter is also not compatible with any files made with previous versions of Nanogong. I have dozens of spelling questions that will not work with the new filter so I've had to rename my Nanogong filter for Moodle 2 so that they can co-exist and all my spelling tests will still work. I anyone needs/wants a copy of it let me know.

In the name of all moodling language teachers, I'd like to thank Prof. David Rossiter, Dr. Gibson Lam, Ning Xie and Oz Lam for bringing NG over to Moodle 2. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but that's really exciting news!

It's coming up to summer so if they fix this by mid/late summer we stand a chance of promoting it before term starts. Hard work beyond that point. If they don't release updated version by September, and there's demand, would you be willing to publish the bug fixes yourself?

This is a great tool and I appreciate your work in providing this to the Moodle community.

I installed it and everything works just fine.

A word of advice for anyone who runs into a problem where the recording tool doesn't show up - Update Java. Restart your system. Firefox prompted me to use the new Java plugin. I had to approve it and then restart Firefox. Google Chrome worked fine.

Internet Explorer 64 bit didn't and still doesn't work. I suspect this is related to windows 7 and 64 bit. All my 32 bit browsers (chrome & FFox) work. My Java installed is 32 bit according to the control panel.

We have released a new version of the NanoGong Moodle 2 extensions. The new version includes several improvements and fixes, in particular, the security issue mentioned by Davo and the inability to show the applet when https is used.

Just to clarify, while the NanoGong TinyMCE plugin is meant to add the NanoGong audio capability to the HTML editor in Moodle, you will not be able to use NanoGong in a few places, such as the assignment feedback window.

The reason for this is that the file upload feature in the HTML editors in these places has been disabled in the Moodle level. For example, you will not be able to upload a picture in the assignment feedback window and therefore you will also not be able to upload an audio file (i.e. the NanoGong audio) there.

To avoid confusion we are trying to remove the NanoGong plugin icon in HTML editors where file upload is not enabled, such as the assignment feedback window, in the next release of the NanoGong Moodle extension.

Removing the NanoGong plugin icon will help clear up confusion for those places but what about places where pictures can be placed but NanoGong doesn't work yet? Any plans to get some of those working?

Specifically, I am interested in quiz questions. Right now you can make a NanoGong recording in the editors for question text, general fedback, answer, and feedback but when you preview the question or use it in a quiz, the NanoGong always fails to play giving an error of "Failed to establish connection to the server."

Hi, first of all: thanks for porting Nanogong to 2.x, this saves us from implementing more complicated approaches like Poodlle. We've installed it on our productivity platform (2.2.3+) and our test platform 3.3 beta. In most places it works just nicely, we do, however, get a "failed to establish a connection to server" error when trying to use it in a text page (exactly like in Al rachel's description regarding quizzes). I'm not sure whether this is the exact same problem, since (other than in Gibson Lam's explanation) it is well possible to upload pictures into text pages. Is there a way to fix this?

Thanks for developing Nano Gong :D Actually, I am facing a lot of issues with Nano Gong version 4.2.1 on Moodle 2 I work on a Macbook Pro running OSX 10.7 Lion (in case this is important). I use Chrome as my browser.

1. When I tried to add a NanoGong activity, I was able to add it in. I was also able to use the HTML editor for inserting voice. While on the same page, it works fine. I can add as many icons as I want and replay them. However, when I press 'Save and Display' and then click on the Nanogong icon to play, I get this error - 'Failed to open incompatible/unavailable voice data'. Actually, whenever I leave the page or submit the activity, I am never able to play it again and always end up on that error.

2. When I tried to create a multiple choice question, again, I am able to record and play the question as before while editing it. This time, it even works if I save the question and then come back to it later in edit mode. However, when I try to preview quiz and click on the speaker icon, the previous 'Failed to open' error arises once more.

3. When a student attempts the quiz and clicks on the NanoGong speaker icon, a lot of error output appears on screen since I have enabled debugging. The output reads as "Notice: Undefined offset 2 in .../filter/nanogong/filter.php on line 59".

So, in short, NanoGong doesn't work when I click on the speaker icon. It always works in the HTML editor when I am able to click 'Show NanoGong Voice'. I guess it has something to do with filter.php.

Here is what I experienced today: while I tried to restore a Course-Backup (without any nanogong activities) in a moodle 2.2.4+ site I got a nanogong related database read error which has been mentioned earlier here too: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=203740

line 394 of /lib/dml/moodle_database.php: dml_read_exception thrown line 848 of /lib/dml/mysqli_native_moodle_database.php: call to moodle_database->query_end() line 103 of /backup/util/helper/restore_decode_content.class.php: call to mysqli_native_moodle_database->get_recordset_sql() line 72 of /backup/util/helper/restore_decode_content.class.php: call to restore_decode_content->get_iterator() line 81 of /backup/util/helper/restore_decode_processor.class.php: call to restore_decode_content->process() line 423 of /backup/moodle2/restore_stepslib.php: call to restore_decode_processor->execute() line 34 of /backup/util/plan/restore_execution_step.class.php: call to restore_decode_interlinks->define_execution() line 153 of /backup/util/plan/base_task.class.php: call to restore_execution_step->execute() line 148 of /backup/util/plan/base_plan.class.php: call to base_task->execute() line 157 of /backup/util/plan/restore_plan.class.php: call to base_plan->execute() line 315 of /backup/controller/restore_controller.class.php: call to restore_plan->execute() line 147 of /backup/util/ui/restore_ui.class.php: call to restore_controller->execute_plan() line 46 of /backup/restore.php: call to restore_ui->execute()

I use your latest announced release of nanogong.

Are you aware of this error right now? What can be done to get it fixed?

If you were using nanogong with moodle 1.9 and then upgraded to moodle 2.x with the new nanogong, then its broken.. Because the Nanogong 4.2.2 is missing the 1.9 DB upgrading functionality in /db/upgrade.php

So basically, you have the new Nanogong for Moodle 2, but in your database there are still Nanogong 1.9 tables which are missing the required fields & some tables...

The plugin for Moodle 2.2 works beautifully. But I am having one issue with the plugin/filter for the TinyMCE text editor. When installed I can use the text editor fine but I can't toggle to full screen mode. The screen simply freezes.

Thank you for updating this amazing plugin! It's going to get a lot of use in our Modern Language courses this year!

However, I seem to have an issue with installation. When I (as a student) submit my Nanogong assignment, I (a teacher) have no way of adding grade or feedback. Attaching a screenshot. There are no editable fields. And when I "Click here to Edit" it gives me nothing for adding grade or written feedback. Did I do something wrong in the installation perhaps? Classes start next week and I'm starting to panic of this function. Thanks in advance!

Were you able to find a fix for the grading and feeback issue? We are having the same problem when we click on 'Click here to edit'. It takes us to a page where we can submit another recording and shows the assignment information at the top. I am finding a lot of resources on how to use the nanogong, but frustrating when you can't see what they are saying you should be seeing.

Hi David, I was soooo excited to get NanoGong when my Moodle course was upgraded to Moodle2.2.3 (Build: 20120514)! The Voice Activity works great! However, when I tried the HTML editor NanoGong I am not seeing the recorder tools I just get the below. I also tried different browsers with the same result.

I checked all the filters and believe them all to be turned on ...especially since the voice activity works.

Can you direct me to the next step in getting this to work?

THANK YOU! This has got to be the one plugin every teacher on the planet will want!

I too am pleased with the new Nanogong version for Moodle 2.3. Works really well. I am wondering though about customizing the Nanogong applet. For instance, I don't need the speed buttons. I saw where when Nanogong is used as a standalone, one can go into module.js and change <param name> features to true/false to get the desired effect, but this didn't work for me in the Moodle version. Can anyone point me in the right direction for making these changes?

I’ve just installed the nanogong plugin for TINY MCE (4.5.1.1) in moodle 2 (2.3). The installation gone fine but in test activity with questions type multiple choise, the icon of speaker doesn’t exist for students but do exists for teachers:

Nanogong is such a cool app & I'm so glad to see it up & running in Moodle 2! But like the others posting on this thread, I'd love to see it enabled for ALL html editor textboxes, especially those which we like to use to provide feedback to the student. Being able to SPEAK the feedback is so much more efficient (in many circumstances) than having to write copious responses.

Does anyone know any possible work around that would let us provide nanogong feedback to students in a personal way? The only way I can think of (& this would be clunky) is to create a private forum for each student.

I have just installed Nanogong for Moodle TinyMCE. Playback is fine on Chrome Version 25.0.1364.45 beta

But fails to play giving "ERROR: Failed to open incompatible voice data" on:Firefox Version 17.0.1Opera Version 11.64Safari Version 5.1.7

This is on a MacOSx10.6.8 Java 1.6.0_37 running Moodle 2.3.1

I also get same error on Windows 7 Java 1.7_11 machine with Firefox, Opera and IE8 but the applet does play sound file back on Chrome.

After a little digging, it looks when you click speaker image and applet attempts to load file in (Firefox, Opera, Safari, IE) looks like session information isn't passed and a new fresh unauthenticated session for user is setup. Then user has to re login, the applet session distroyed and new authenticated session created and the cycle continues.

Hi, thanks for the add-on info, works great but I'm having some trouble with the applet.The icon works great in the HTML editor, I can record and once the topic nanogong voice activity is finished I can hear it by clicking the speaker icon. And I also can record as a student, but when I submit it I can't play any student record by clicking the speaker icon. Even selecting the record name from the list the applet doesn't show.So, what can the problem be? Thanks.

The lastest version of NanoGong 4.2.3.3 doesn't seem to work with recent versions of Firefox (tested 17 and 23). There seems to be a problem when submitting the audio data to "saveaudio.php". The applet doesn't transmit Moodle's "httpOnly" authentication cookie, so the script returns a redirection page, instead of proceeding normally. Internet Explorer 10 doesn't exhibit the problem.

Just installed Nanogong (all components) in a 2.4.1. Moodle installation. Found Nanogong as a resource but it is not showing as an Activity. Thought it might be an assignment type so switched on the 'old 2.2' assignment type. This also did not bring me an activity. Can anybody advise if I can have a Nanogong activity in Moodle 2.4.1. and onwards.

Sadly, I don't think the current version of Nanogong has been updated for Moodle 2.4 yet. The last version release was prior to the Moodle 2.4 release.

If you really need and audio or even video Activity, you might want to try PoodLL. It has an activity, activity feedback, filter, database field, question type, and repository so that basically, if you have an edit window, you or a student can enter an audio or video recording. Works with the latest Moodle and on just about any portable device.

Hi Ramiro, we've run into the same problem. There's a setting in the CFG object called httponly, if it set to true, Nanogong will stop working. Unfortunately, httponly stops XSS attacks from hijacking user sessions on your Moodle site (especially the admin account). Basically it prevents any applets or javascript from access the Moodle cookies and Nanogong depends on getting the session id from the Moodle cookies. So turning it off will leave your users exposed to potential session hijacking. Until Nanogong is patched, it looks like you will have to choose between security and Nanogong.